“You are not alone. You can make it. Others have gone through this experience, including me, and we’ve made it.” These are the words that peer support volunteer Deb Bateman shares with patients in the Burn Center at MedStar Washington Hospital Center.
Over the past 15 years, the hospital’s inpatient and outpatient support groups have been a constant in Deb’s healing. “I feel extremely passionate about them because I had to survive for many years, alone, after my own accident,” she says. “In the intervening years and before I moved to D.C., I spent a long time searching for friends, peers, or support groups who might understand what I was going through.”
The Burn Center is where Deb first met occupational therapist Rebekah Allely who connected her with the hospital’s burn support groups, the D.C. Firefighters Burn Foundation, and the Phoenix Society for Burn Survivors. “I ended up in this area by chance and found what I had been looking for after so long,” recalled Deb. “It was December 2008 when I first reached out to Rebekah and she invited me to the support group’s holiday party. The people were so welcoming that I started attending regular meetings and soon became involved in leading groups. You develop comradery, you don’t forget each other, and there is a lifetime connection.”
Although some of Deb’s physical injuries have healed, she still wanted to find people who were facing the same struggles. “I knew it would help me, and I wanted to bring comfort to others by sharing my story and being present for them during their recovery. I knew and understood the hardship of feeling alone,” adds Deb. “I didn’t want anyone else to experience that in addition to what they were already going through. I’m trying to give what I didn’t get. That’s why I knew there was a need.”
At MedStar Washington Hospital Center, Deb connects regularly with fellow burn survivors, “we’re always in touch and follow each other’s journeys.”
A Lifechanging Day on the Job
In September 1999, Deb worked for the Ford Motor Company in their stamping plant in Buffalo, New York. She wanted to expand on her IT background and move into a division at the company that designed new cars with lasers and computer programs. To work with the lasers, the role required that employees have a journeyman electrician card.
Deb was completing an on-the-job apprenticeship under a senior journeyman when her life changed in an instant. She was directed by the senior journeyman to climb a ladder and cut a powerline. She had been assured that the power had been shut off to the line and that it had been “locked out” meaning a lock had been put on the power box after the power to the line had been cut. “Unfortunately, the power was still running through the line, and it wasn’t stepped down through a transformer,” recalled Deb. “The power to that line was coming straight from the power company at 21,900 volts.”
When Deb attempted to cut the line, she was immediately electrocuted and couldn’t let go. She thinks what saved her life is that she had been standing on a wooden ladder and it kicked out from under her due to the vibration of power and she fell to the ground. The fall allowed her body to disconnect her grip and stop the shockwave of electric current transferring through her body. An explosion of sparks further burned Deb’s body as she crushed her leg and sustained a brain injury and concussion from the fall.
A helipad, located directly across the street, provided her medical evacuation to a nearby hospital in Buffalo that had a burn unit. Deb was airlifted to the hospital where they discovered she had burns over 50 percent of her body, both externally and internally. She was given a 5 percent chance of survival. After emergency surgery including multiple skin grafts, she went into a coma. Her family said their goodbyes to her at only 45 years old.
Surviving the Odds
Three months later, Deb awakened from the coma. Her family had asked for all the mirrors in her room to be covered. It wasn’t until she was taken to a restroom down the hall that she got a glimpse of what she looked like. Her corneas had been burned in the accident, which affected her vision, but it was still easy for her to see she had lost part of her face. “I came out of the restroom and said, ‘I need to see someone who looks like this, someone who’s been through this,’ but there was no one,” recalled Deb. “I kept asking because I knew it was the only way I could get an idea of what my future might look like.” The Buffalo hospital didn’t have a support group at the time, or peer volunteers.
In addition to losing most of her face to burns - similar to a candle melting - she had burns internally in her esophagus and lungs and had sustained damage to her heart. After several weeks in the hospital, she was discharged to outpatient care with daily appointments for her heart, eyes, throat, brain injuries, and more. She continued to yearn to talk to someone who had experienced something similar both physically and emotionally who would truly understand what she was going through.
Giving Support
Soon after joining the support groups at MedStar Washington Hospital Center, Deb learned that the Burn Center was looking for a peer support volunteer and she jumped at the opportunity. The Burn Center connected her with the Phoenix Society for Burn Survivors’ Phoenix Survivors Offering Assistance in Recovery (SOAR) peer support training program, and she started meeting with inpatients every week.
“It wasn’t until I came to MedStar Washington that I made the connections and actually learned the tools to truly heal. The Center has done everything for me,” said Deb. “I get emotional because it was the first time after all those years, I had any support myself and I was able to really recover, help my family recover, and learn how to go on to help other people. The more I met with people and offered peer support, the more healed I felt. Being here saved me.”
A Healing Journey
In addition to Deb’s volunteer work at MedStar Washington, she is an active member of the Phoenix Society for Burn Survivors, participating in their online support network, and frequently reviewing their books, reference materials, and training tools. The D.C. Firefighters Burn Foundation financially supports Deb attending Phoenix’s annual conference to share her story, as well as other opportunities to connect and bond with other burn survivors.
“I’ve had a long time to heal, and I’ve met a lot of other people with electrical burns along the way,” shared Deb. “There is no more excruciating physical pain as having your fleshed burned away, but I take what Phoenix has taught me, and what I’ve learned from others in the support groups, and introduced it to newly injured people to give them hope and emotional strength while they are working to regain their physical power. I offer my heart to them because I’ve been there and lived through the agony and know that anyone else who’s lived through it is looking for that connection.”
Deb said she’s happy with who she is now and the meaning she has found in helping others. “Regardless of what a burn survivor looks like, I want them to know that they are still the same person inside with the same heart and the same worth. When they look in the mirror and see what they’re not used to seeing they’ve lost something very important but that isn’t their whole identity. It took me a long time to realize I’m still the same person. Healing doesn’t happen overnight, but it does come with time and support.”
About the Burn Center
The Burn Center at MedStar Washington Hospital Center treats more than 500 acute burn-injured patients admitted for treatment each year, with another 700 treated as outpatients. The Center is the only adult burn treatment unit in the Washington Metropolitan area, serving the District, Southern Maryland, Northern Virginia, and Eastern West Virginia. Dozens of the Burn Center patients have gotten to know Deb over the past 15 years during their time in the hospital or by participating in the inpatient and outpatient support groups. This support and resources are available to all burn victims, regardless of where they received treatment.
Click here to learn more about burn care and The Burn Center at MedStar Washington Hospital Center.